Rather than doing any actual negotiating, the two companies seem to have been hoping the threat of an angry, alienated customer base would resolve the issue. It hasn't.
Time Warner Cable finally blinked last night, but it didn't help:
Viacom has rejected Time Warner Cable's request for a 15- to 30-day extension on the 12:01 AM January 1st deadline when the cable programmer pulls its 19 channels off the 2nd largest cable system operator. I'm told Viacom and TWC had no contact throughout yesterday until news of the Big Media battle broke. Suddenly, at 8 PM, TWC came to Viacom with an increase offer and the extension request. But Viacom rejected both out of hand. "It was bogus. The low-ball offer was clearly an excuse to ask for an extension and then use that in their press acrtivity today," a Viacom source claimed to me. "After we've been trying to meet with them for several weeks, we won't consider an extension unless they're prepared to really negotiate and come across with a reasonable offer."
So who's to blame? Bloggers at the LA Times choose sides, but we were serious about that Hulu/BitTorrent comment—it's possible that in this economy neither side will come out ahead by shutting the doors on its customers. Notice how both bloggers draw the same "maybe I'll just find another way" conclusion:
Time Warner's dangerous gamble [is] that people can learn to live without what it's selling. I already have, to some extent. When Time Warner pulled Turner Classic Movies from its basic cable lineup—in Hollywood, no less!—and substituted the Golf Channel, I didn't bite and upgrade to premium. I've ended up buying a lot of the black and white classic films I love, and can now watch them on my schedule, not Time Warner's.
[Viacom is making] the wrong demand at the wrong time. And the big loser here could be Viacom, which needs Time Warner more than Time Warner needs Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and the host of other Viacom cable networks.You could argue that recessions are good for cable operators—people spend less on entertainment away from home, raising the value of packaged home-entertainment bundles such as cable and satellite. But as the jobless rate climbs, it's hard to imagine Time Warner extracting sizable rate increases from their subscribers in 2009. More important, as Patt notes, Viacom puts its shows online, free of charge. So while it's asking Time Warner for more money for its channels, it's flooding the market with a cheaper version of the same product.
"Blackout looms in Time Warner, Viacom standoff" [Reuters]
"Unhappy New Year!" [Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily]
(Photo: Getty)
@bigduke: I live in San Antonio, and I'm still getting all the channels...
]]>Actually, that's 23 cents per customer PER CHANNEL that Viacom was asking for. So basically, the rate hike that TWC recently did to cover all 200+ channels that they carry? Viacom wanted about that much for 18 channels. I really don't think TWC was wholly in the wrong here.
]]>@aspiringexpatriate: *U-Verse. And yeah its really good, got it in my old apartment and was finally rid of the devil Comcast. But moved and can't get it here. Oh well.
]]>@ceejeemcbeegee: DTV can burn in hell too!
]]>By the way, Cablevision is the best internet provider I've ever had. They don't throttle and don't have caps and i remember them saying they're against doing it.
Plus 24/7 phone support and..going to your home support.
Sorry if that was a plug, I just wanted to say that not all IP's are created equal.
]]>Hey Rupert- how about picking a fight with Concrap and the other gatekeepers? Surely they should pay you much more for your "fine" programming!!!
]]>These media companies - both of 'em - have quite an illusion of how important they are to us. Frankly, I think my whole family would live better if both the cable company and the megacorps that produce the crap that comes through their tubes were to just die overnight. Is there ANYTHING on these channels:
BET
MTV, MTV2
CMT
Comedy Central
Nickelodeon
Spike TV
The N
TV Land
VH1
...that the $50-100/month could not be better served by buying better quality food, donating to charity, boning up on target practice, taking dance or bowling lessons...?
]]>@verucalise: It is a good thing that Robot Chicken is on Cartoon Network, which would not have been affected...
]]>Both systems are vulnerable. Of outages that have been noticeable, however, those with TWC have been more frequent and longer than those with Dish. Yes, if we get a really hard rainstorm, then Dish goes out for a few minutes. If we get hungry squirrels, however, TWC goes out until they can get a tech here to check it out. That's typically a few days.
I subscribe to Dish for TV and TWC for Internet.
]]>Actually, I think I would pay more to get rid of The Hills. Come to think of it, that goes for MTV, VH1, BET, HSN, ShopNBC, ESPN1-900,C-SPAN, Univision..
Why the hell can't we just pay for what we want? The lame excuse that this is so they can pay for less popular channels is garbage. Channels are less popular because they're not as good, not the other way around.
]]>@I am Mrs. Nerdtastic.: Sort of. TWC has been pulling this not only with the giant Viacom but with many small, local stations over the last couple of years.
If there was more competition, TWC wouldn't be pulling off this crap.
]]>@concordia: It was the local station. A couple of months ago TWC did it to the local ABC affiliate in San Antonio. They rely on the fact that they have a lot more money and can outstare the local stations.
]]>I just wish BBC would sell iPlayer subscriptions for people in the US.
]]>@ceejeemcbeegee: I predict a surge in downloading. I can download anything that these channels have without commercials. And a move like this will motivate people to put even more shows on the web.
]]>I have absolutely no love for my cable company company (it's Comcast after all) but I'm not all that anxious to have my rates raised over a bunch of channels that if I had my druthers, wouldn't be in my lineup anyway.
]]>BT and other such services would essentially kill viacom as people would just turn more to stealing them online as opposed to watching them with commercials.
]]>Its how I get "The Soup."
]]>Also kudos for the division president thanking employees in the call center for staying late in person.
]]>If Viacom loses 13 million subscribers their advertisers will be up in arms. Viacom should be paying TWC to air their channels with TWC taking a cut of the advertising revenue.
]]>UD. Gotta love the Ghetto...
]]>@The_IT_Crone: Sadly, no. Every cable company I've dealt with has a clause that thay can change channel lineups at any time.
]]>It could be vomitastic...er, Comcastic, or it could be Wile E. Coyote Cable.
]]>Wouldn't this put cable providers in violation of their contracts with consumers?
]]>Ignore me... Watching CN.... I meant Nickolodeon
I think it's time to start drinking.
]]>Ignore me... Watching CN.... I meant Nickolodeon
I think it's time to start drinking.
]]>@chemmy: I'll die without Robot Chicken.... Thats why I have Directv :)
]]>@chemmy:
Carton Network=TWC
]]>@chemmy:
Carton Network = Owned by TWC
]]>@jwm1314:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry had to laugh. No Comedy Central for you. I first head of this on the dayton daily news. I'm glad I got uverse. SOOOOOO much better. I laughed at TWC customers when they didn't have NBC. Hell I hated TWC for not having NBC in HD when I did have it.
But it'll be over by then. Soo WSU or UD?
]]>Screw them both!
]]>I don't need Speedvision or Golf channel, you morons. Why am I paying $50 for Sixty channels i don't watch? Well, I'm not, for long. I'm switching to satellite this month-- where I can get 100 channels for $40, including DVR service.
]]>However, I know a lot of people will be angry when they lose their babysitter (Cartoon Network).
]]>What does Time Warner have to do with Cablevision?
]]>@twotondawg: They're talking about Northeastern Ohio most likely. I live in Erie, Pennsylvania and that's the coverage area we're lumped into. We'll end up losing those channels as well.
]]>@jodles: I'm interested as well - Let me know if you do this. I've been considering it, especially since my bill went up about $10 to $105 now for just DVR + HBO and cable internet.
]]>Viacom's number is 212-258-6000.
Call them both and unleash hell on the phone jockeys! (Who of course have no control over the situation...)
]]>@DaleKaleD: You should reread that crawl. It isn't TWC or Brighthouse putting that crawl up on the screen, it's Viacom. I know 'cause I've got Uverse and the crawl is on there too. Viacom wants cable customers to put pressure on TWC and Brighthouse to capitulate to Viacom's demands.
]]>If you turned to the former NBC station during the time it was off the air you'd experience a looped video (presumably made by TWC staff) describing how you could hook a laptop up to a TV and watch Hulu content on your TV.
]]>@Dakota Courtois: Is the Nicktoons network available online? They are starting a new X-Men cartoon on there at the end of January and I would like to watch it as I don't have pay TV.
Seriously anyone with an XBox 360/PC/Netflix can watch almost any show they want either on the 360 or online. The only exceptions are 75-90% of live sports, WWE (TNA is on the XBox,) all HBO/most Showtime original series, and Discovery Channel/HGTV/Food/Travel Network type stuff.
]]>The more providers charge the cable companies, the more we will pay for cable. Of course they pass this on to us. I think the cable companies are providing a service to the providers by distributing the programs for them. There are many more commercials on these channels than even normal network TV. These commercials are our fair share of the cost. Sounds like they want us to pay twice for the same crap.
If they want the cable companies to pay for the channels allow them to have the choice on the channels and pay the cost. That way we can make the decision. My guess is if that were so, they would't be asking for any more than they already get from those many, many commercials.
This will be the only time I ever stick up for cable companies!
]]>Think their reasoning behind that is ppl will still have to pay for their broadband connection.
]]>My daughter is going to be super pissed off. A lot of the channels I don't care about as MTV/VH1 suck monkey balls anyways but to lose Comedy Central sucks big time. Losing the cartoon shows also sucks.
]]>Here in Austin, this is the third time in the last 2 years that TWC has denied, or shut off programming in a contract dispute. I am ashamed to say how much cable bill has risen inthe same time frame. I missed the NFL network, but I got over it. I missed my local NBC affiliate, Hulu, and NFL.com to the rescue. I will miss some comedy central shows, but I can get most of them online as well. The only thing Cable has going for it is it's technical reliabilty versus dish or At&T. Soon that will not be enough for them to sustain their bad business model.
]]>and in the words of Captain Escalus Prince... "ALL ARE PUNISH-ED"
no one wins.. hooray!
]]>(Hint to both companies: I don't mind paying to watch the channels I want to watch...it's when you bump my rates up to get things like the Golf Channel and ABC Family, that's when you piss me off.)
]]>Am I the only one who sees this and goes.
"New York (k), LA, (k), Dallas (k), and Cleveland (?)"
]]>And what are we losing?
BET
MTV, MTV2
CMT
Comedy Central
Nickelodeon
Spike TV
The N
TV Land
VH1
So... exactly what "programming" are TWC subscribers losing? All I see there is advertising masquerading as entertainment.
]]>